


Every Right Thing (Will Find Its Right Place)

by what_is_a_social_life



Series: After It All [1]
Category: Glee
Genre: Beth and Shelby will be major players I promise, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death - Finn Hudson, Developing Relationship, F/M, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Gen, Minor Quinn/Biff, These early chapters became so Quinn x Puck heavy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2019-08-21 21:41:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16584704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/what_is_a_social_life/pseuds/what_is_a_social_life
Summary: Beth, Shelby, Puck, and Quinn. Unorthodox, sure, but a family nonetheless. This is how they came to be.





	1. On The Wind

**Author's Note:**

> "What are you doing? You have other in-progress stories to finish," I say as I post this anyway.
> 
> This has been in this works basically since After It All started getting posted on fanfiction.net. I cranked out some stuff and now here we are.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I am in no way affiliated with Glee in any way, shape, or form. Work title comes from the musical Waitress, chapter title from Spring Awakening.

“Quinn?” a voice called, knocking lightly on the door of the hospital room. Puck glanced back at it, not all that surprised to see Shelby standing in the doorway. She held Beth in her arms, and the sight made his stomach roll. He knew this was for the best, that he and Quinn wouldn’t be able to give Beth the life Shelby could. Not now, maybe not ever. But still… Signing the papers earlier that day had felt like a punch to the gut.

And the punches hadn’t stopped yet.

“She’s still asleep,” he said. Quinn hadn’t stirred in about an hour, and even Shelby’s voice hadn’t shaken her.

“Oh,” she replied, walking into the room a little more. “I wanted to return her for the night; visiting hours are about to end.”

“You’re not taking her home today? Wasn’t that the point of signing those papers?”

“You may have signed papers today, but she’s not mine yet,” Shelby replied. “It was different, with Rachel; they were her biological dads. There was no waiting period or anything. With Beth, there is. Besides, she hasn’t been cleared yet, same as Quinn.” She sat down in the nursing chair in the corner of the room, watching him watch Beth. She was beautiful, looked just like Quinn. He loved both of his girls so much, and he was still coming to terms with the fact they  _ weren’t _ his girls.

“Oh,” was all he said to her, though.

“Noah, I do want this to be an open adoption. I want you to be able to see her, if that’s something you want, though there’ll need to be some ground rules. No one knows better than me what a forced separation can drive people to do. And that way there’s access to medical histories and just- anything you want to know about her, I’ll let you know,” she said.

“That sounds great and all, Ms. Corcoran, but I think that’s just going to make it harder. You’ve signed away your parental rights; you know what a blow that is. To say to this little girl you’ve been looking forward to that you can’t take care of her. Look at her. She’s two days old. She can eat and sleep and shit herself. That’s  _ it _ . It’s supposed to be my job to burp her, and help her fall back asleep, and clean her up. Quinn and I are supposed to be the ones to take care of her,” Puck answered back. He hadn’t realized just how loud his voice had gotten until the silence cut through it all. Shelby wasn’t looking at him, only Beth.

“Biology isn’t the only way to make a family, Noah. I promise you, I will protect Beth the same way you would. And, if you and Quinn decide to come back when she’s a little older, I’m okay with that. We can talk that out when the time comes. But I think we’re all going to need some time to adjust to this. Finish out the school year. Start thinking about college. Then we’ll talk again, okay?” He looked at her, sitting in the chair, holding Beth perfectly. He’d almost banged Beth’s head against the side of that chair, and the diaper he’d changed yesterday while Quinn slept had taken almost ten minutes because he put it on backwards the first time and needed the nurse’s help to fix it.

Shelby wouldn’t need ten minutes to change a diaper. And she’d sing Beth to sleep, and wake up at three AM to feed her. She’d buy her cute clothes and dress her in them. She would be there when she rode her first bike, started school, had a bat mitzvah, started driving, went to college. She would do it better than he could. Hadn’t that been why Quinn hadn’t come to him in the first place? He wouldn’t make a good father. His own example was shit; why would he be any better?

“Okay,” he said. Shelby nodded, but didn’t smile like he’d thought she would.

“Maybe it’d be best if I just took Beth to the nursery,” she said.

“Maybe.”

“Goodbye, Noah. I’ll try and find Quinn tomorrow.” He nodded and turned back towards Quinn. He felt Shelby’s gaze linger for a moment, but then he heard her heels click across the tile as she left the room.

Quinn was still asleep, or at least, looked like she was. Considering how loud he’d gotten, he wondered if she was faking.

“Quinn?” he said. “You can open your eyes, if you’re awake.” Without skipping a beat, she opened them, and somehow, he found the strength to smile. “We’re making the right decision, right?”

“Yes,” she said, with less conviction then he’d expected from the girl who had first admitted she didn’t want to keep her. “Everything’s going to work out. For all of us.”

* * *

Matt’s parents had offered to let the glee club spend some of their spring break at their family’s lake cabin, which was a very nice gesture. The whole club wound up there, and everyone was having fun, even without any alcohol. He wasn’t sure who had been the one to insist it be a dry weekend, but he was grateful. He had stopped drinking around Sectionals, in an attempt to prove himself to Quinn. Plus, after she’d moved in, even the smell of his mom’s wine or beer with dinner made her feel sick. He hadn’t started again, as much as he felt like he needed it, and didn’t want to have to explain it to anyone. Besides, just holding a red Solo cup makes you blend in at parties, and makes everyone think you’re drinking.

Quinn herself had disappeared, again. He wasn’t all that surprised. Her due date was the next day, and even though she’d been back at school and putting on a brave face, he knew everything had to be hitting her hard. It was still hitting him hard, after all.

He left the tantalizing game of Monopoly to go use the bathroom. The door was shut but unlocked, so he opened it without even thinking of it.

Quinn stood there, a breast pump hooked up to her chest. He had seen one back in his researching baby care days, but had never expected to see Quinn with one. She glanced over when the door opened and jumped, and while she was still tense when she saw it was him, she seemed to relax slightly.

“What are you doing?” he asked with an almost morbid fascination, shutting the door behind him and locking it.

“It’s been three weeks, and my body has yet to accept that there’s no baby to feed, though there is less and less coming out, so it’s catching up. Just a lot slower than I thought it would.” He nodded. Quinn’s body would hold the effects of Beth longer, which he’d known, but actually seeing it surprised him.

“I’m sorry. That I got us into this. I shouldn’t have made you drink so much.”

“Puck, wine coolers have very little alcohol in them, and I had two, maybe three of them; I was barely even buzzed. And I wanted to have sex with you. And I made the decision to not get an abortion. And I-” she cut herself off, looking away from him and fiddling with the machine.

“Hey, no,” he said after a moment, realizing where she had been going. “That was not your fault. It was-- it  _ is _ \-- a shitty situation. Other than the cheating bit, none of this is your fault, and that was mine just as much as yours. Giving her up didn’t- it wasn’t wrong, okay?”

She nodded, then removed the contraption and pulled her shirt back down. Without giving her any warning, he strode across the bathroom and hugged her. She stiffened, but then soon wrapped her arms around him and cried. Her broken sobs tore at his heart, and he wouldn’t admit it to anyone but her, but he cried that night, too.

* * *

Mother’s Day fell the same day of the guys’ lacrosse state championships. He’d been trying to get Quinn to come watch him play all season, just to give her something to do. Between not being a Cheerio and glee not rehearsing, he had no idea what she was up to. She used to play lacrosse, too, since cheerleading nationals were so early in the year, but she’d been pregnant during tryouts. When she’d been pregnant, she’d talked about getting a job once the baby came, so maybe that was what she was up to.

Mother’s Day, though, he was sure she would barely even be leaving her room. He knew he was going to be a wreck come Father’s Day. He had not expected giving up Beth to hurt this badly until he met her, and even now, he could talk to her, if he wanted. Not right away, since Shelby had asked for that, but maybe soon.

He slammed his locker shut and tried to get invested in the team conversation. It mostly was about girls and sex. He’d loved these conversations before. Before. He now divided his life into before Beth, which lasted until the day he heard from Finn that Quinn was pregnant, and after Beth. Somehow, everything he was proudest of fell into ‘after.’

When he got onto the field, he heard the screaming increase. He glanced at the bleachers, and there was Quinn, a large sign in her hands with his number on it.

He still swears he played better that day then he had all season.

* * *

June was when their luck ran out. June was when they decided they didn’t work. June was when she went one way, and he went the other.

June was when Shelby moved to New York.

June was when Quinn resolved to earn her crown back.

June was when Puck got a vasectomy.

June was when they all resolved to go forward, and never look back.

But then, less than eighteen months later, Al Motta called.


	2. The Embers Bright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "After Sectionals, Quinn made a choice regarding her relationships with Shelby, Beth, and Puck."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from “Light A Fire” by Rachel Taylor.

After Sectionals, Quinn made a choice regarding her relationships with Shelby, Beth, and Puck. She decided to not define her relationship with Puck, because the two of them were too messy and complicated to ever define. (Not that she would ever admit that to anyone, of course.)

Beth and Shelby were different. She’d considered just butting out completely and then holding on to the hope that Beth would seek her and/or Puck out when she was older, but she knew Rachel and Shelby had an uneasy relationship, and that made her rethink that option. She’d had a lot of time to do that, after all, since the offer had first been extended the day Quinn signed away her parental rights.

Beth was her daughter. Shelby, as a former surrogate, understood that; it was why she had pushed for an open adoption. Of course, less than three months later, Shelby had whisked Beth off to New York and, while she did try to get in contact with them once or twice during junior year, they hadn’t bothered. Puck would have told her if he had. Maybe. They hadn’t spoken, much.

But when she’d come back, things had changed. Quinn’s one perfect thing was real and in person and looked so much like her and Puck that it was hard not to imagine what would’ve happened a year and a half ago if she had let herself want this child they had mentally prepared for but didn’t follow through with.

This was how she found herself on Shelby’s doorstep.

Knocking on the door, Quinn took a deep breath as she waited for Shelby to open the door, and ran over the words she’d memorized on the way over. They were sincere, she knew, but how to convince Shelby of that? She wasn’t sure.

“Quinn,” the woman said slowly when she saw her, “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to apologize. I just- I- I’m a mess, Shelby. And I just thought maybe Beth would fix that. I shouldn’t have said or done everything that I did. I’ve been in a really weird place since- well, since I found out I was pregnant.”

Shelby gave her a once-over, causing Quinn to fidget involuntarily. The first few weeks after moving back in with her mother had had this very same incredibly tense atmosphere. Back then, she’d been waiting for her mother to snap. Right now, she was waiting for Shelby to let her in. Very different circumstances, yet both were equally unnerving.

“Do you want to be a part of her life?”

“More than anything,” Quinn promised.

“Okay, then. Come on in.”

* * *

Quinn walked into the elevator of Shelby’s building and pressed the button for her floor, waiting for the door to close, when she heard Puck yelling, “WAIT!” and she laughed out loud, but held the door for him nonetheless.

“Why didn’t we just drive together?”

“Because we’re crazy,” he replied. “So. You ready for your first Chanukah celebration?”

“Hey! I celebrated with you and Sarah while I was pregnant with Beth!”

“Alright, fine, I’ll give you that.” She rolled her eyes.

“How’s the special going?”

“Okay, I think. I don’t know, I kind of wish I’d said I’d volunteer with you and Sam,” he said, shrugging. Quinn raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t want all that fame and glory?” she said, only slightly teasing. It’s not like the special was airing outside of Lima, but still.

“I mean, sure I do, but I don’t know. Aren’t you the one who goes on and on about the ‘Christmas spirit?’ Because that’s lacking from our show.”

“You can always back out,” Quinn said as the doors began to open. Puck didn’t respond as the two exited the elevator and went to the door of Shelby’s apartment. He knocked, and Shelby opened it with a small smile on her face.

“Come on in.”

He let her go in first, and she made a beeline for the playpen in the corner of the room. Beth was sitting in it, chewing on a stuffed bear. She looked pretty content, so Quinn didn’t take her out, just ran a gentle hand over the girl’s hair. It was so thick and soft. Her own was finer, but Puck’s was practically wool. No wonder.

“I had a stuffed bear as a kid,” Puck said, and she glanced behind her and the two shared a smile. A timer dinged somewhere and Shelby headed off towards the kitchen. Quinn followed her and sensed more than heard Puck come along, too. Shelby had a frying pan on the stove and Puck grinned at what was in it. “You made  _ latkes _ ?”

“It’s Chanukah; of course I did,” she replied. “It’s my mother’s recipe. Hopefully it isn’t too butchered.”

“Please, Quinn’s had my mom’s  _ latkes _ ; anything is better in comparison,” he said. “My grandparents’, though, that’s where it’s  _ at _ .”

“Your mom’s  _ latkes _ weren’t that bad,” she said, feeling the need to defend Mrs. Puckerman. She didn’t like to think on it, much, her time with them, since she’d been such a dick, but she had enjoyed his mom a lot.

“Alright,” Shelby said, putting some of the  _ latkes _ onto a plate. “I did not invite you guys here just for  _ latkes _ and dreidel spinning, though I expect to be doing a lot of it.” Quinn bit her lip. When they’d gotten the email from Shelby, Puck had texted her and said it seemed to good to be true, and she’d agreed, but they had both sucked it up. ‘Tis the season and everything, after all. “We need to talk about this, going forward.”

Could have been worse. The three of them hadn’t exactly sat down and done a post-mortem on the past couple months. Hell, she and Puck hadn’t even done it on everything that had gone down sophomore year, and they probably should.

“Okay,” Puck said.

“Okay,” Quinn agreed.

So, with some interspersing for  _ latkes _ , dreidel, menorah lighting, and bedtime, the three of them came up with a plan. Shelby retained full custody, obviously. That was not a path Quinn and Puck could go down at this point, and not that they should, either, with graduation right around the corner, and two different ideas of what comes next. They had babysitting rights when desired, but all babysitting must be together and at Shelby’s apartment. (Quinn apologized profusely, again. It wasn’t okay, yet, probably would never be, but they were building a bridge, and that’s what mattered.) The lease on said apartment would end in July, at which point Shelby planned to return to New York, Beth in tow. Quinn had already applied ED to Yale, and flew in secret to do her drama school audition two weeks ago. She should hear back any day. The guidance counselor wanted Puck to apply for the University of Lima, his father’s three-semester alma mater, but he hadn’t made any decisions yet. They planned to revise in June and see how it went until then. It was a good plan. A lot, but good.

Quinn and Puck walked out of the apartment building together. Her chest felt simultaneously tight but freed. She shoved her hands into her pockets, missing the mittens she’d left at her mom’s.

“Where are you parked?” she asked.

“Oh, I walked,” he said, sheepishly. “Mom needed my car; hers is in the shop. It’s not far, like a mile.”

“I know, but that’s like a half hour walk, at least, and it’s cold and dark. C’mon, I’m this way,” she said, and turned without giving him any other choice. She heard him chuckle, but he followed her anyways. They didn’t speak until they were in her car, the words seeming to just bubble out of her. “Why is she letting us do this?”

“I don’t know,” Puck finally said.

“She has no right to trust us. Either of us. And just- She has no requirement to give us this much. Why?”

“Maybe she knows we need someone to take a chance on us,” he said, looking over at her. “No one can say we’ve had an easy two years.”

“That’s an understatement,” she said. She started the car and was about to shift into reverse when Puck reached out and stuck his hand on top of hers, stopping her in her tracks.

“Why did you do it?” he asked. “Call me that night, and not Finn. Or one of the girls.”

She rushed back to that summer night that had launched this whole thing, the cutting words at practice, the fights with her parents, with  _ Finn _ , and then being left alone. Puck’s name had been the only one baging around in her head, not Santana or Brittany or her boyfriend.

“I just needed you,” she said.

She remembered that night, every detail. The stories they reminisced about, the attempt at a cheer-up speech, the wine coolers (She knew the count; she’d had one and a half, and the lie she’d told had cut her too deep for too long, turned that moment into something uglier than it already was) and then the moment she hadn’t been able to just stare at him anymore and had kissed him in a way she had been dreaming about for a while. She hadn’t thought about Finn in those final moments before committing to what was happening with them; she’d thought about the man sitting beside her now, with his stupid mohawk and goofy grin and kind eyes, the one who was unafraid to do so many stupid, idiotic things but stupidly noble ones, too.

She saw it in his eyes, then, now, something beautiful, something she couldn’t place. His hand still covered hers on the gearshift. They stared at each other, just a moment longer, but then he removed his hand, and the spell was broken.


	3. Where I'm Going

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “'Noah,' she said, and he didn’t like the carefully calculated tone she was using, the repeated use of his name, 'Quinn was in a car accident.'”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I don't own Glee, and thank you for subscribing/bookmarking/commenting/leaving kudos. They all make me so happy; you have no idea.
> 
> One line is taken from the episode “Goodbye.” The title is from “Downside of Growing Up” by Maddie and Tae.

Quinn was late. Like, really late. It wasn’t like her at all. Finn and Rachel, though especially Finn, were getting restless.  _ Where the hell is she? _

He reached for his phone and dialed her number, but it went straight to voicemail. That was weird. Rachel’s texts seemed to be going through, so it shouldn’t have done that. Just as he was about to try texting her instead, his phone started to ring in his hand.

Why did he have Judy Fabray’s number?

More importantly, why was she calling him?

“Mrs. Fabray?” he said hesitantly as he answered the call.

“Hi, Noah,” she said. “I didn’t have anyone else’s number.”

“What’s going on?” he said. Wait, he’d cleaned the Fabrays’ pool before, back before their whole mess had started. Judy had never been interested, but that was how he’d gotten it, and maybe Quinn, too. Was there an issue with the pool and she needed help? It was only March; why would she need help with the pool? Had mold grown in it or something?

“Noah,” she said, and he didn’t like the carefully calculated tone she was using, the repeated use of his name, “Quinn was in a car accident.”

“Is she okay?” he said immediately. He was getting a weird look from one of them, he could feel it, but it didn’t matter.

“I don’t know,” Judy said, and the tone disappeared. He could hear the tightness in her throat, the tears she was about to shed. “I’m going to St. Christopher’s now. I can’t go alone.”

“I’ll meet you there. ER?”

“Yes,” she replied. “Thank you, Noah. I know the two of you… Thank you.”

“Of course, Mrs. Fabray,” he said, and then he hung up the phone.

“Why did you say ‘Mrs. Fabray’ and ‘ER’ in the same conversation?” Mercedes said, suddenly appearing in front of him. He felt like he was in a daze. “Puck, where’s Quinn?” she added, voice tight, eyes blazing.

He didn’t respond, and simply bolted out of the registry office as Finn and Mr. Schuester shouted after him. He barely managed to keep his cool as he drove to the hospital, extra cautious about being a good driver now, and parked in the first spot he could find near the ER. He ran into the waiting room and Judy was standing right near the doorway. Without warning, she pulled him into a hug, and he returned it. He couldn’t tell who was shaking, her or him, but his heart felt like it had leaped into his throat.

The club arrived in waves, all still dressed for the wedding. Finn and Rachel stayed apart, mostly; she was sobbing hysterically, talking about how this was all their fault, and he was trying to calm her down. The most they’d gotten out of anyone was that Quinn was in surgery, but hours were ticking by.

“Judy Fabray?” someone called, and Puck straightened in the hard hospital chair. She stood up and walked over to the doctor with remarkable grace considering, and the two had a short conversation before she followed the doctor down a hallway. He relaxed, slightly. Quinn must be alright, if her mom was going back. Right?

It was another thirty minutes before Judy came back and relieved them all of watch duty. Quinn had mostly been in surgery to get glass out of her-- apparently the windshield had attacked her, in a nurse’s words. She had broken bones, a concussion, and more that they hadn’t looked at yet. It would be several days, at least, before she would be discharged. Everyone slowly filtered out at that, but he didn’t move. He honestly didn’t think he could. What was he supposed to do, after all? The plan had been to celebrate the wedding tonight. That wasn’t happening, not anymore. He didn’t see a better place to be, except maybe with Beth, but he wasn’t sure he could look at her, look into Quinn’s eyes, and not fall apart.

“Noah? Do you want to stay?” Judy asked. He nodded, numbly. She sat down next to him, and gripped his hand. “Thank you.”

“For what?” he asked. Before today, he thought she hated him.

“For always being there for her, when she needed it,” she replied.

“I’m always going to be,” he said, without thinking. When he realized how it sounded, he almost took it back, but instead, he just let is rest.

Judy just squeezed his hand tighter.

* * *

They eventually moved their vigil into Quinn’s room once the doctor gave them the all clear. She was still sleeping off the anesthesia and she looked bad. She had cuts and bandages all over her body. Her only broken bones were ribs from what they could tell, miraculously, but they couldn’t run their full tests until she was awake. They sat there for almost an hour in silence before his stomach grumbled a little too loudly, and he volunteered to grab them dinner from the cafeteria.

When came back to the room, Quinn’s eyes were fluttering awake.

“Quinnie, are you here?” Judy asked, walking forwards and resting her hand on Quinn’s shoulder. Judy glanced back at him and added, “She sort of came to when you left.”

“Mom?” Quinn said, her voice sounding hard and raspy. “What-”

She was stopped from answering by Judy immediately bursting into tears and draping herself across Quinn’s body.

“You’re hurting me,” Quinn managed to get out, and Judy jumped away, mumbling apologies and that she was going to go get a doctor.

It was then that she saw him.

“Puck?”

“Hi,” he said, his voice almost breaking. “I couldn’t leave.” She cracked the smallest possible smile, and he felt his eyes start to burn with tears.  _ She was okay. She was okay _ .

Judy and the doctor came back, and Puck passed Judy her food as the doctor began his tests. They tried to keep quiet, eating over near the sink, just outside the bathroom. He was the first to learn that she would be confined to a wheelchair, that there was a good chance she would be able to walk again, but…

No one needed to fill in the ‘but.’

He visited every day, the only one she allowed, and once she was back, he cashed in a favor from Artie to keep an eye on her. She said she was fine, but he wasn’t convinced, and wasn’t sure she would tell him.

The day after Ditch Day, Shelby texted them and asked if they would be able to babysit Beth. She knew about Quinn’s condition and hadn’t wanted to bother them, but the other babysitters she’d tried out were all already booked.

“What do you think?” he asked, watching her face. “I can drive, and the building has an elevator. And it’s an apartment, so no stairs to worry about.”

“I don’t know if I want her to see me like this,” she said, her voice tight. He’d heard that too much this past month.

“She won’t remember; she’s two. And we haven’t seen her since her birthday.” That had been before the accident, by just a couple days. It was approaching Easter now, and Shelby’s show was about to open. Quinn had had to drop out of the spring play because of PT, which sucked, since she’d had the female lead, too, in some Shakespeare show he’d been studying on his own so he would actually understand what was happening. The ensemble girl who had gotten promoted sure seemed happy about it, but he wasn’t. This semester was sucking, like a lot. Add in his stupid geography exam, and he was about ready to throw in the towel.

“But what if-”

“She thinks less of you?” he asked, already knowing this was where this would go. She nodded, almost hesitantly, and Puck leaned forward and grabbed her chin, making her look him dead in the eye. “No. She’ll know her Quinn was just as badass as her Puck.” They’d decided that, for now, they were just Puck and Quinn to Beth. She’d been opening up to them more and more, having her little two year old conversations with them. When she was older, they would explain everything to her, but for right now, this was all right with them.

“Okay,” Quinn said, then, still watching him.

“Okay,” Puck agreed, and they shared a smile as he stood back up.

* * *

“Joe, huh?”

Puck did his best to keep his voice even. He wasn’t sure  _ why _ he even felt the need to keep his voice even. He and Quinn were friends, nothing more. Sure, she had invited him over, but it was to  _ study _ . So he could  _ graduate _ . Quinn was walking, they were Nationals champions, they were in Beth’s lives, but it wasn’t over yet. He had to do this.

“You’re not here to talk about that,” Quinn said. “Sit down. At the desk.”

“I wanna talk about it. We have a kid. I deserve to know about any future stepfathers,” he said, mostly teasing. He and Quinn were technically acting like step-parents right now, after all, to said child. She rolled her eyes at him and stared at him expectantly. With a dramatic sigh, he pulled out his books and began setting them up.

“We decided that we feel things, but that long-distance is too much strain on a barely formed relationship,” she said as he did so. “Plus, he’s spending most of the summer on a mission trip, so even less time.”

“And what will you be doing this summer?” he asked. “Lounging by the pool, soaking up all the tan you can to fit in at Yale, what with everyone returning from their summer houses in exotic places like Massachusetts and Maine?”

“Very funny,” she said. “I’m going to be a secretary at my father’s law firm. It was not my choice to work there, but I need to help my mom pay for my hospital bills. It’s not fair she’s gonna have to juggle them and college, so I’m gonna do my part. Especially since it’s my fault, after all.”

“Is your dad not paying them? I thought he was loaded,” Puck said.

“He is. I’m, for the most part, still disowned in his eyes. Giving me a job is one thing. Paying for me is another,” Quinn said. “Now, that’s enough. Indian Ocean, show me.”

The tutoring session helped. A lot. He had to admit, kissing her had felt even better than he remembered from just a few months ago. God, she was driving him crazy. He missed her in that way. Missed that closeness. How had he ever let that go?

But she was right. Long-distance would be too much strain on a barely formed relationship. So they graduated, and she went to Yale, and he to LA. He watched as she started slipping into that girl he didn’t like much from junior year, let her date that professor and those other weird guys but took credit for the break-up after a terse phone conversation they had. Neither of them saw Beth much in person anymore, but they now had a text string with Shelby in which she sent them lots of stories and pictures. He Skyped with them once a month, and knew Quinn did, too. They were making an effort, even if he hated how LA had worked out and Quinn was so swamped with work every weekend she hadn’t been able to visit Beth in person yet.

But he was coming home. Maybe that would be enough to make things feel less shitty.


	4. Even The Darkest Night Will End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a bit of a rough year. But things always turn around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One line taken from "100". Title comes from "Epilogue" from Les Mis.

Second semester at Yale seemed uneventful, at first. She got to see Beth right when they got back due to the trip into NYC to see Rachel. It was the first time she’d been at Shelby’s without Puck since Sectionals last year. It almost felt wrong, but it was so nice to see her, especially since Beth was talking more and more and running around the apartment and wanting to play with her, which was new. She seemed to love the new daycare Shelby had founded, and that bridge she and Shelby had started building seemed to finally touch down on land.

Mr. Schue and Ms. Pillsbury’s failed wedding was in February, as was the weird hook-up with Santana she didn’t want to talk about. Then she learned Puck and Kitty were seeing each other, which made her uncomfortable for reasons she couldn’t figure out.

Then with March came…                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Well.

When Carole called her, she broke down in her dorm room, and her poor roommate had no idea what to do with her as she just sobbed and sobbed.

It wasn’t suicide, or drinking or drugs, or even another car crash. He just dropped in the middle of class. Declared DOA. She wasn’t entirely sure why.

The summer after graduation, with Rachel sent off to New York and Puck leaving for LA shortly after, Finn and Quinn had kindled a really close friendship until he reported for training, and had tried to keep in touch ever since. Things got crazy, of course, they always do, but they were in probably their best place _ever_. She, Finn, and Puck had all gone out over Christmas and it had been the best night of her college career, in Lima, Ohio, with two ex-boyfriends-turned-best-friends, very little alcohol, and no sex.

That couldn’t just be it for them. He couldn’t just be _gone_. Not when he’d just sent her some memes a few hours ago, when they’d had an hour long phone conversation last night, when it was his turn in Words With Friends because she’d managed to spell “breakdown” while, ironically, taking a five minute break from stress studying for midterms in the library.

She went to the funeral, and held hands with Puck the entire time. If she was out of it, then he was a goddamn zombie. Rachel and Kurt, at least, looked like two average grieving people. Puck was just vacant. She and Mercedes reached a nonverbal understanding to keep an eye on him, especially since she had to go back to take those goddamn midterms and couldn’t miss any more school to come back for the memorial Mr. Schuester was trying to put together. Everything absolutely sucked, and even taking a weekend to see Beth for her birthday and then Rachel, Kurt, and Santana just for fun wasn’t enough to make it better.

And, in the middle of all that, Biff McIntosh strolled in.

Honestly, she found him pretentious, and condescending. Also, what kind of guy called their mom ‘Mother’? It was creepy as hell.

But losing Finn cut her deep. Plus, classes hadn’t been going all that well. Well enough for her to not be _failing_ , exactly, but not, you know, what she wanted. She was pretty positive she only got into the school since she applied ED and her dad went there, after all. But the one class she did well in last semester he was in this semester, and he was best friends with her best college friends who happened to live next door, and so somehow she wound up tutoring him and they fell into this. She had never been entirely sure what she wanted to do with her life, and it didn’t really matter in the ‘real world’ that her degree was in Theater as long as it was from Yale, though some say even that wouldn’t matter. If nothing else worked out, maybe she’d have this Pennsylvania, straight-laced WASP to fall back on.

So she buried herself in make-up, the pearls her father got her for some birthday years ago that she’d brought just-in-case, the dresses she always enjoyed but hadn’t worn in a while. She didn’t talk much about life before college, which was not out of shame and embarrassment. Probably. Biff made it very clear very quickly that he expected the women he dated to meet a certain standard. She needed this right now, so sure, she hid herself around him. But only around him. Her roommate knew everything and supported it all. She got it. She herself confessed she was mostly here for a Mrs. degree anyways.

That should’ve been the end of things, the end of a perfectly normal first year at college, finished with a 3.4 GPA. Not what she wanted, but good enough. Now, her biggest fear would just have to be when Puck got deployed. Not that she didn’t support him, or think this would be good for him, but- she couldn’t _lose_ him.

Because Beth needed him. Obviously. She was dating Biff, for God’s sake.

But then she got the fancy evite-- Mr. Schue trying to make the best of a shitty situation, per usual-- to return for the Glee Club’s final moments.

* * *

She honestly hated that Biff was here. This was _her place_. She was supposed to be able to be herself here. Instead, she had the dresses, and the stupid pearls, and the pounds of make-up.

The Breadstix meal was pretty quiet. Her friends all seemed uncomfortable with the limited amount of information they could share to answer Biff’s many questions, but they managed to steer into pretty safe territory by explaining show choir, something she always forgot most people weren’t aware of. It was fine, and the looks they were exchanging meant _nothing_ , even if she’d shared those very looks with them when anyone else had done something this stupid and reckless.

She woke up the next morning with a missed call from Puck, but no voicemail or text to explain it, and he never brought it up.

Nevertheless, though, he got to her, between that and the song. _God_ , that song. She hadn’t forgotten about that performance, contrary to what she’d told him. She _had_ forgotten about the car ride from Regionals to the nearest hospital, where Mercedes had been in the front after volunteering to navigate for her mom, and Puck had sat beside her, holding her hand and whispering in her ear-- including the lyrics to that very song. She didn’t remember much from that day, wasn’t even sure he remembered it, but hearing that song again rocked her in a way she didn’t appreciate. When she and Biff were at McKinley the next day, she made the decision to just come out with it.

“This is where I told my boyfriend I was pregnant,” she said, passing that bulletin board. Biff stopped in his tracks.

“What?”

“The summer before sophomore year, I cheated on my boyfriend and got pregnant,” she said. “We gave her up for adoption when she was born at the end of March. That weekend I couldn’t tutor you because I went into New York? I was visiting for her third birthday. And I really needed that, after Finn’s death. He was the boyfriend I cheated on, and probably one of my best friends.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” he said, and yeah, she wasn’t imagining the edge his voice had taken on.

“There’s a lot I haven’t told you,” she replied. The bell rang before he could respond, and she nodded towards the door. “Let’s take this outside.”

It gave her a sick sense of satisfaction to watch Puck throw Biff into the dumpster, as much as he shouldn’t have done it. Biff said he would be going back to school on the first flight he could catch after grabbing his stuff from her house, and she said fine, and let him go.

* * *

Puck’s words echoed around her even after he’d left the locker room. _I know who my soulmate is_ . That was never a thing she expected to hear Noah Puckerman, of all people, say. _Soulmate_. That wasn’t a high school, or even a college word. That was an adult word. That was a word that, if she agreed, might just mean she was done.

The thought filled her with warmth. She closed her eyes and saw her and Puck with Beth and Shelby as the little girl grew older, playing with her, attending concerts and recitals and sports games, cheering alongside her mom.

Her and Puck getting married, having more children. Watching him go, welcoming him back. Him always at her side, holding her hand, sitting on the porch beside her, old and gray and wrinkled.

She wanted that. God, she wanted that _so badly_. Screw “long distance is too much strain on a barely formed relationship.”

She ran after him without another thought.

Her mother didn’t even raise an eyebrow when Puck came over for dinner that night, and simply said that Biff had collected all his items and was probably on the plane back to Pennsylvania at that very moment.

Puck, naturally, smiled a shit-eating grin at this, and then proceeded to charm the pants off her mother (As if he needed to) throughout the meal and the impromptu piano jam session they had after, until she walked him back to his car after dinner.

“What is this, exactly?” he asked, hand on the door handle.

“I don’t know,” she said. What did she even want it to be? He made it sound like forever, and she liked the sound of that.

“I want you to be my girlfriend. And I want to sing that song with you for the club. I know we both think long distance and new relationships don’t mix, but is this _really_ a new relationship? I mean, we never really labeled it before, but… I don’t know.”

She didn’t say anything, just nodded and kissed him. It wasn’t until later that she realized she hadn’t said, out loud, what she’d been thinking. That she might love him, probably does. She saved it for after the song, and as they left McKinley for what she expected to be one of the last times, she whispered,

“You know who we have to tell?”

“Who?”

“Beth and Shelby,” she said, grinning. He grinned back. Sure, Beth was Shelby’s daughter more so than theirs, but she was still _theirs_. And life was going to be so much easier knowing that they would always be together for her.

As luck would have it, Puck was assigned to the Hanscom Air Force Base, just two hours from her, and three from Beth. While Quinn spent a lot of first semester trying to get her grades up to where she wanted them, Puck spent a lot of his free time in New York, bonding again with their favorite little girl. They were invited to Shelby’s surprise fiftieth birthday party in early November by one of her friends who’d never even met them, and they decided to say yes. She seemed surprised, but very happy to see them, and they did lunch the next day with Beth, who was even _more_ excited to see them.

They celebrated New Year’s together in New York, at a party hosted in the big Bushwick apartment. It would be their first full year without Finn. Their first full year as a couple.

Quinn had learned a long time ago to take the good with the bad. As Puck pulled her close to his side and leaned forwards to kiss her, surrounded by their friends and glittering confetti, she decided this was a combination she could definitely live with.


	5. Home With Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is legitimately no reason it took me as long to post this as it did. It's been sitting for weeks. I hope it tides you over until I have the time to actually finish the next chapter. The title comes from "Where You Belong" by Kari Kimmel.

Shelby knew the day would come. But Beth was almost four. She thought maybe she had gotten out of the question altogether.

It happened at closing that day, when Shane came in, alone, to pick up Henry. Beth let him go rather reluctantly. After she’d finished her closing activities and bundled her daughter up for a New York February, they walked out onto the streets of Manhattan hand in hand. Once they got on the subway, Beth swishing her legs around in a clearly very entertaining circle, it was dropped on her.

“Mommy, where’s my daddy?” she said, glancing up at Shelby with such an inquisitive little look that she almost answered, but then she caught herself, and caught the weight of that question.

“What?”

“Henry has a daddy. Most of my friends have one of those  _ and _ a mommy. But I just have you. And Quinn and Puck sometimes, but nobody else has a Quinn and Puck,” she said. Shelby nodded, unable to do anything else. At least Beth acknowledged Quinn and Puck as big components in her life, as family. Beth had been the one to declare they needed to buy them presents for birthdays, Christmas, and Chanukah. They’d even been able to get them in person, too, since Quinn had an off day in the middle of her exams and they had an early Chrismukkah celebration, as Puck named it.

Pushing for the open adoption had been easy, after everything with Rachel. Hiram and LeRoy she was sure were great fathers, and Rachel seemed to truly love them, but they’d been shitty to her, practically whisking Rachel away, with the only contact being when Rachel was hospitalized with appendicitis and they’d needed her medical history. She hadn’t known, then, how little or how much contact Quinn and Puck would want. When they didn’t reach out at first, she figured that was that, but then she’d been in Lima, at their school. It felt only right to try again. She welcomed them, at first, and then all of the sudden there was everything with Quinn and  _ sleeping _ with Puck-- she knew now that Quinn was in the right, that she deserved to be turned in, and if Puck hadn’t turned eighteen that previous summer, she would have needed to plead guilty to statutory rape and likely lose Beth in the process.

Making the decision to let them back had not been a light one. She was going to be in Lima for almost seven more months, with her lease. And, she could see it all in Quinn’s eyes, the ridiculous magnitude of pain she’d been through in just a few short years, so she’d let her in, and Puck after, and she was starting to feel responsible for them the same way she did for her former students, for the kids she looked after now. College, and now the military, had been amazing for them, as was their newfound romantic relationship. They’d had enough long conversations to make it clear that their involvement with Beth was always up to Shelby’s discretion, not theirs. They normally tried to keep their visits to every few weeks, and rarely ever twice in a month unless one of them happened to be in New York for another reason. It was incredibly respectful, and all she could have asked for.

So now, it was only fair.

“Baby, can we talk about this more later? It’s a very big conversation,” she finally said. Beth nodded happily, returning to watching her legs swish and humming one of the songs they’d been doing today. With shaking fingers, she reached for her phone and texted their group chat a simple sentence:

_ We need to talk. _

* * *

“Beth, some people are here to celebrate your birthday!” Shelby called from the doorway, and she listened as Beth hopped off the couch and came around the corner. She couldn’t contain her smile at the almost comical look on Beth’s face as her mouth dropped open.

“PUCK AND QUINN!” Beth cheered, bolting for them. Puck had a box in his hands, but Quinn immediately bent down to catch the little girl as she launched herself into her arms. “I missed you!”

“We missed you too, birthday girl!” Quinn replied, standing up. “God, I can’t believe you’re  _ four _ !”

“That’s this many,” Beth said, holding up five fingers. Puck grinned and gently pushed her thumb down.

“There you go,” he said, and the two of them giggled. The trio moved into the apartment more, Quinn setting Beth back down on the floor. “How’s your day been, munchkin?”

“Mommy and I gots  _ doughnuts _ for breakfast,” Beth replied with awe, as if they hadn’t done this the past two years, “And we went to the park and played on the playground and then we hads samiches and salads for lunch and now YOU’RE here and we been putting together the gift bags for my party tomorrow with all my friends! And Mommy said for dinner we could have pizza and cake!”

“Pizza  _ and _ cake?” Puck said with a wide grin. “You’ve got a pretty cool day planned.”

“There’s one more thing we have to do, though. You’re four now, so Puck and your mommy and I all agree that you’re a big enough girl for us to explain some confusing things to you,” Quinn said, only taking her eyes off of Beth for a second to exchange a look with Shelby. She felt her heart drop, but she nodded, and walked over to the couch. Beth crawled up beside her, with Quinn and Puck sitting on the ottoman across from them, barely fitting.

“Once upon a time,” Puck said, “There was a beautiful princess. She had long blonde hair and green eyes.”

“Like me and Quinn!” Beth cheered.

“Exactly,” Puck agreed. “This princess loved a knight, but she was engaged to the King of Finland, and was supposed to marry him. She loved him, too, but not the way she loved the knight.”

“One night, the princess had a magic spell cast on her, and she became pregnant with a baby in her tummy. The baby’s daddy was the knight, and not the king. At first, she decided to tell the king he was the daddy, but he soon discovered the truth. It took a little while, but they became friends again, and the baby was born. She was a little girl who looked just like her mommy,” Quinn said, voice starting to break.

“But,” Shelby said, remembering this was her moment to come in after the long, practiced tale telling over the phone, “The knight and the princess were very young. They didn’t know how to take care of a baby, and didn’t think they would be able to make her happy, since they still had princess school and knight school to finish. It was a very, very hard decision, but they gave her to the old fairy who lived in the nearby forest. When the baby girl was a couple years older, they started to visit her, and became friends with her. And when the little girl turned four, the princess, the knight, and the fairy all decided it was time she learn that they were her parents.”

“So, Fairy Mommy, Princess Quinn, and Knight Puck sat down on the couch in Fairy Mommy’s house, and told the little girl named Beth the truth,” Puck said slowly. They all watched Beth’s smile turn into a frown.

“But those are  _ our _ names,” she said.

“Baby, Shelby’s your mommy. But she wasn’t your first mommy. I was,” Quinn said. “And Puck was your first daddy.”

“I do have a daddy?” she said, glancing at Puck. He pulled out his wallet and gave Beth a picture Shelby hadn’t seen before. Quinn was lying in the hospital bed, holding a crying baby Beth, as Puck and one of their other friends she couldn’t name looked on. The hat was the one she kept in Beth’s baby box, one she’d been playing with just this morning.

“That’s you, with Quinn, and me, and our friend Mercedes,” Puck said, pointing to each of them.

“It’s my hat!” Beth said, “My baby hat!”

“Yeah, it is,” Shelby agreed. “And that’s why you look so much like Quinn, because she was your first mommy. I’m your second mommy.” The wording left an odd taste in her mouth, but the four hour long phone call the three of them had shared last night had decided it was best.

“Katie has two mommies,” Beth said. Katie was one of the girls at the daycare, who had two lesbian moms as parents. It wasn’t quite the same, but Shelby supposed the parallel sufficed. Beth scrunched her face up, like she was thinking hard. “So Mommy is my Always Mommy. And you are my Sometimes Mommy and Puck is my Sometimes Daddy?”

“Sort of,” Quinn said, frowning.

“Hey, Beth, remember the Superman story we watched that one time?” Puck interjected, “How his Krypton parents sent him to live with the Kents to keep him safe, and he had two sets of parents that loved him and who he loved?”

“I’m Superman?” Beth asked in awe. Shelby laughed, and tickled her stomach, making her writhe and giggle.

“You sure are, baby,” Shelby replied.

“So I have a Mommy and a Mama Quinn and a Daddy Puck!” Beth said, suddenly getting it. “Mommy’s my Always Mommy, because I live with her and snuggle with her at bedtimes. And Mama Quinn and Daddy Puck are still my mama and daddy, but they had to send me away so Mommy could help be a superhero!”

“But,” Quinn said, “You don’t have to call us ‘Mama’ and ‘Daddy’ if you don’t want to.” She addressed it more to her than Beth, Shelby noticed. It showed how far they’d all come.

“Right. We can still be just Puck and Quinn,” Puck said, doing the same. Honestly, though, she didn’t think she minded. They were their own distinct names, not just ‘Daddy’ and ‘Mommy’. She was impressed Beth had even deliberately picked  _ Mama _ Quinn over  _ Mommy  _ Quinn.

“I think those are great names,” Shelby said with a nod, and she could watch as love and thanks took over their faces, Puck even mouthing a ‘thank you.’ “But they’re right. You don’t have to, baby.”

“But I want to! Superman did, I think!” Beth said, like this justified everything. She supposed, to the four year old, it kind of did.

“Do you wanna go get Mama Quinn and Daddy Puck some party hats?” she said, nudging the girl a little bit. Quinn was dripping Puck’s hand tight enough that it was white, and she knew the three of them needed a minute.

“And one for you too, Mommy?” Beth said, already halfway off the couch.

“Yes, please!” she said, and Beth was gone. The second she was, Puck dropped Quinn’s hand and practically fell onto Shelby, arms winding around her neck.

“Thank you,” he repeated, and she hugged him back quickly before Quinn took his place, tears shining in her eyes.

“Thank you,” Quinn said. “For everything.”

* * *

Watching Rachel in  _ Funny Girl _ the next week made everything feel like it had come full circle. Her daughter shone on that stage. The show was one of the few open on Monday night, so they had lunch that afternoon and she saw the show that night. Rachel didn’t need her like Beth did, and they hadn’t had the chance to be close enough like Beth had with Quinn now. She knew that relationship was going to be both a blessing and a curse, but if her relationship with her own mother was any template, she and Beth were going to butt heads regardless of whether or not Quinn was in the picture. In fact, Beth would just have an extra head to butt around with.

She was honestly happy about it, too. Quinn and Puck had been amazingly respectful of the arrangement. She wouldn’t have been, if she’d had the option. She would have tried to soak up all the Rachel time she could’ve.

She and Beth were happy. Quinn and Puck were happy. She could feel the two groups becoming less separate, and honestly, she didn’t mind. It was almost freeing.

No, not almost.

It  _ was _ freeing.


	6. All Part of a Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The future begins to take shape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s a “wrote this instead of studying” kind of day. Sorry for the wait. Title comes from “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran. References to my fic “Best Laid Plans,” but it’s clear still (In my opinion) if you haven’t read it.

**** Second semester junior year, Quinn  _ finally _ got the lead in a school production, not counting Viola in McKinley’s  _ Twelfth Night _ which she had to drop due to her car accident.

Her acting resumé had been accumulating fun credits since joining Glee sophomore year. She really enjoyed  _ Rocky Horror _ and  _ West Side Story _ , but honestly, she’d preferred _ The Crucible _ , the one straight play she’d gotten to do at McKinley. At Yale, she’d done a lot of fun, smaller roles, and stretched her acting range across dramas and comedies, plays and student films, but Catherine in  _ Proof _ was her first  _ lead _ . It was a big deal.

Such a big deal that when Beth found out, she decided she wanted to come watch.

After re-reading the script, Shelby decided it would be fine. Beth wouldn’t know a lot of the words and references and, honestly, probably would be more focused on Quinn than the story (Shelby’s words, not hers). It was a big deal, to have Beth there. Her  _ daughter _ , who called her  _ Mama Quinn _ now and everything.

The play went up in late February. Beth was an exemplary audience member and big hit with Quinn’s friends who came to the performance, especially with her endearing question of why Mama Quinn kissed Hal and not Daddy Puck. Puck couldn’t make it until the next day, so Shelby and Beth were renting a hotel in New Haven for the night so he could see her the next morning, which was incredibly nice and thoughtful. Beth definitely seemed to like exploring campus with her and seeing her dorm room, becoming ever more popular along the way.

Not many people had believed her when she’d first started openly talking about Beth, following her break-up with Biff and reconciliation with Puck. Many even said she didn’t seem like mom material. She’d thought, after the disbelief of dating an Air Force stud was proved false, they’d be more open to the possibility of Beth. Not that it really mattered, since the little girl wound up being so liked, which Quinn put down to Shelby entirely. It wasn’t like she and Puck could take credit for her personality, not really. Genetically, yes, but how it actually manifested? All her.

March had become such an important month for them, it was nice for her not to have too many commitments. Between the anniversary of Finn’s death and Beth’s birthday two weeks later, having time to go up to New York and see Beth, or Boston and visit Puck, was nice. Not that he had a ton of opportunity to get away. He was trying to take less leave this year, prove he was committed. He’d used a lot last year to do things like help bring back New Directions or go to the big double wedding she was still kind of irritated to have missed, even though she had been the one to decide to stay home with her mom after the car accident. Her mom had stayed home with her, after all, when she had been in her accident. It seemed only fair to make it up to her.

This March felt different because of that wedding day, though, when they’d decided this was it for them. They had kind of done that before, back when she’d asked him to stay, but things just felt different now. This man was officially her life now. They would be building up and moving on, together.

How many people her age got to say that?

* * *

_ We need to talk _ texts in their group chat (Now christened “The Beth Squad” by the titular girl) were always interesting. The simple sentence had a range of meanings, from ‘Puck and I are getting back together’ to ‘Beth asked about her dad’ and everything in between. This time, it meant Shelby’s friend was producing a new show, and he didn’t want her to merely music direct, but star.

She and Puck had let Shelby do what she wanted career wise. It was Shelby who had decided to not try and actively do shows, who had founded the daycare as an alternative. She was still teaching and could still spend time with Beth. But Beth was getting older. She would be starting kindergarten soon. The daycare was running fine. So Shelby had started music directing a bit, local shows, mostly youth ones, where they didn’t need her for the performances because there was no orchestra, just a few hours a week, and they didn’t mind if Beth tagged along.

But this time, she wanted  _ their _ input.

“It feels almost like we’re divorced parents,” Quinn laughed, but she knew he got the meaning behind those words. She and Puck had been in their weird limbo state back when her parents were fighting over custody. Well, less custody and more child support. Frannie had been off being married and out of their father’s way, and Quinn had started to feel like nothing more than a chew toy. Puck had known that, tried to help her cope with it.

“Hey, stop that,” he said, and she wished he was there with her, and not hours away, not just a voice on the phone. “It’s awfully nice of her to include us, right?”

“I’m not sure why.”

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to think about how my future fits in with Beth more and more these days,” he said. “I know I’m close to you guys right now, but. I’m still far. Living on base makes sense for now, but that could change. And I know you’re still kind of figuring stuff out, but doing the show this summer I think is going to help you.”

Her advisor helped her find some summer theater she could do outside of the Lima Community Theater, and she’d been cast in a production of  _ Much Ado About Nothing _ at a summer Shakespeare festival in upstate New York. She liked her classes and everything, and she really liked being in shows and student films, but she wasn’t quite sure yet if she wanted that to be her  _ life _ . She was running out of time to firmly figure that out. Her father still wanted her to go to law school, and her mom just wanted her to be happy, which was nice but not exactly helpful for the moment.

“Yeah. I mean, if I wind up doing this, it’ll be New York or LA. Probably. Maybe Chicago. I don’t know anymore,” she said, running a hand through her air. “We’ve got a lot to start talking about, it looks like.”

“Agreed.”

With finals and everything, Quinn wasn’t free until May to actually sit down and talk things out with Puck and Shelby, so she let them make the call without her involvement. After careful consideration (And, according to Puck, more of a blessing than input on his part) and talks with Beth, Shelby took the job.

With her own rehearsals starting in just a few days, she had to pack up her dorm and then head straight into Manhattan, meeting Shelby and Puck at her and Beth’s apartment. Beth opened the door with cries of, “Mama Quinn!” and her heart soared, just like it always did now that she was more than just ‘Quinn’ in the little girl’s eyes. It was so hard to believe she was five now, and off to kindergarten in the fall.

Beth got picked up by a friend to go to the park not too long after her arrival, and Puck arrived not long after that. Shelby got them all drinks and then they sat down around the kitchen table together, staring at each other like they didn’t know exactly why they were all there, what they needed to do.

Senior year would start before she knew it. The real world was coming. But she wasn’t afraid of it anymore. It was okay that she didn’t have all the answers yet, but it was time to start working them out.

“I think that Puck and I should pull back a bit,” she found herself saying. Puck looked up at her in outrage. “You and I need time to think about ourselves as individuals and as part of a couple. We aren’t raising Beth. Modern technology makes it almost impossible for us to lose touch. We want to be involved and we can be. But we need time, too.”

“Yeah, we do,” Puck agreed after a few minutes of deep silence. “God, it’s going to suck, isn’t it?”

“I think it will for a bit, yeah. But it’ll help. I know it will.”

The three of them have gotten good at working out plans. This one is meant to last through Quinn’s graduation. It’s a good plan, if rough on her emotionally. She and Puck need that time, though. Time to come into their own as people, as a couple.

Because in the end, they’re not the ones raising Beth. She’s Shelby’s now.

That summer, she had the time of her life at the festival. Beth and Shelby came up one day and even Shelby agreed that performing suited her.

She returned to school armed with desire to continue performing. She was cast as Harper in their two-semester mounting of both halves of  _ Angels in America _ . Beth wasn’t allowed to see this one considering the simulated sex and the sheer length of each play, but she sent her lots of pictures. It was a good but busy semester. She didn’t go into the city or even to Boston. Puck came and visit one weekend, but that was it.

Christmas night found her sitting on his couch back in Lima, curled up next to him as they ate Chinese and watched  _ Schindler’s List _ with his mom and Sarah. His mom cried at the end and then she and Sarah went to bed with a reminder for the two of them to behave. Quinn laughed into Puck’s shoulder as he pulled her closer to him, kissing her head.

“What’d you think of your first Puckerman family Christmas?” he asked.

“Nice. Quite different from your Fabray Christmas last year, huh?”

At her mother’s insistence, Puck had participated in going to church and the big family dinner on Christmas Day. He hadn’t known what to wear so he’d pulled out his uniform, which made him a definite hit with Frannie. Most of her extended family either had no idea she’d ever been pregnant or pretended she hadn’t, so the two of them had been careful not to upset anyone, no matter how much it irritated them. Quinn put her foot down with her mother this year, so she’d done the big fancy dinner and then headed straight over, changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt in the Puckermans’ bathroom, and watching the second half of the movie while fighting Puck over her spring rolls.

“Yes,” he said, kissing her head again. “What do you think Beth and Shelby did today?”

“Much the same as you, I would suppose,” she replied. She’d never really thought about it other than that first Christmas back during sophomore year, but as Shelby wasn’t Christian, she doubted it was a huge affair like it was for her.

“Do you ever regret giving her up?”

“No,” she said without hesitation. She glanced up at him. “Do you?”

“No. I just wonder sometimes, you know? Our lives would’ve been completely different.”

“We would’ve grown up so fast. I wasn’t ready for that. I don’t think either of us were.” She fingered one of the buttons on his flannel, not looking him in the eye. “I think I wanna go to New York after graduation.”

“Okay.” She moved out of his hold so she could look him right in the eye.

“I want you to come with me.” He gulped.

“I can’t promise I can do that.”

“I know. But I want you to try.”

“Yeah. For you, Quinn… I would do anything.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to everyone who comments/leaves kudos/bookmarks/subscribes! They all make me so happy; you have no idea. Come over to Tumblr and say hi: yetanotheremptypage!


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